Lights, camera, action, FRUSTRATION....

As I sit downstairs, (waiting for Wall-e to calm down and hoping my husband can catch up on sleep before he has to be up at 3:00am). I decided to write a blog about my job. I was so very frustrated because tonight I directed the fox (which I hardly ever do) and surprise surprise there were mistakes. So, to calm myself down, here are my.....

10 things you may not know about my job:

1) I work Saturday thru Tuesdays. Saturday and Sunday I work split shifts. (5:30-8:30am and then I go back in at 2:45-11:45pm)
2) Monday and Tuesday, I am a production assistant (I run cameras mostly, but fill in on graphics and audio when needed) On weekend mornings, I direct the 7:00am morning show and in the evening I run graphics.
3) My least favorite part about working weekends (besides the fact that I'm working on the weekend) is capturing,tagging, and then filing CW promos. (I hate final cut)
4) My husband just recently got moved to weekend morning producer, I enjoy working with him, even if he challenges my directing skills.
5) I directed my first week day show, the day after coming back from our honeymoon. I was super nervous and yelled the whole time I was directing. (not because I was angry, but because when I get nervous my voice gets louder.
6) My favorite part about directing is the technical side of it. (I love when friends or family come in and I get to show them the switcher, "Wow, that's a lot of buttons!")
7) When I first started my job, I thought I wanted to be a reporter. (I found out a couple weeks later that writing news stories are harder than it seems and I do not like being in front of a camera)
8) The most frequently asked question I get about working at a t.v. station is, "When are we going to see you on t.v." (The answer is never.)
9) I hate messing up a show, even if its not my fault. (it usually is) I'm getting better at just moving forward and not holding on to the feeling of failure.
10) Even though my job stresses me out, there's never a dull moment.



Love Always,
Callie Marie-McCarty Presley

The beautiful gifts HE gives

Everyone has a different talent, a different gift that God places in our lives.

When I was little I took piano lessons, unfortunately I do not have the gift of patients, so these lessons only lasted a short time. I only remember the first part of a song I learned while taking these lessons and a couple of scales.

I decided to play the drums instead.

My sister on the other hand has always been the patient type and God has blessed her with the ability to play both the piano and guitar (and I'm sure any other musical instrument she picks up to play) She also has an amazing singing voice. (I'm just a little bit jealous, if you couldn't tell)

Tonight, I was invited to her first ever Christmas recital.

She teaches piano and guitar lessons to a handful of children. Tonight, some of them came out to perform their favorite songs for us. They all did amazingly well, and I mean this whole heartily.

Reasons Why?
1) they had the ability to learn these songs, it was probably rough at times, but they stuck with it.
2) There were a lot of people at the recital tonight, I'm sure they were all pretty nervous, but they performed anyway.
3) I couldn't have done it and I admire people who do what they are passionate about, no matter what.

I was so proud of my sister. She's a great teacher.

(Here's a brief summary about my sister for those that don't know her, or know how I see her)

My sister is 3 years older than me, she's married and has two beautiful boys. (which I love more than anything in this world. I try and spoil them as much as possible.)

She loves Jesus. (and I know everyone reading this is probably like, "duh, we knew that.") But the way she loves Jesus kinda wraps all of her other personality traits into a beautiful bundle. She is patient and kind, a great teacher (not the kind that jumps down your throat when you've done something bad/wrong, but says, "that's not exactly right, but that's okay, let me show you again and then you try."), she bites her tongue when she's angry, most of the time she shoves hurtful feelings right out the door and she loves unconditionally. She's a great mother and wife, and an awesome sister. She's beautiful inside and out.
She's the perfect example of what a christian should be. She lets Jesus shine through her and he gives her these beautiful attributes.

So tonight, as I sat and watched these young people play their instruments, I was proud of them but also proud of my sister. She has taken a gift that God has placed in her life and is sharing it with others. I know that when she sat down and played "A White Christmas" that her students were in awe and thinking, "one day I wanna be able to play just like her."

Sometimes when I go home to visit, she sits down at the piano and starts to play and I think the very same thing. Unfortunately, I got all the opposite attributes (I'm not patient, I'm a horrible teacher, and I do not bite my tongue when I'm angry) (And I don't want any comments with, "Oh Callie, these things aren't true." because I know me, and they are, don't feel sorry for me, its true) So as soon as the thought passes through my head of how I should have, maybe stuck with those piano lessons, it has been pushed aside with the thought of, "Who am I kidding, there's no way, I'll just stick to playing the drums!")

I love you sis, you did a great job tonight!!

Love Always,
Callie Marie-McCarty Presley

(My beautiful, talented sister playing at her recital)

10 things you may not know....

As I sit and listen to music that is most definitely listened to by teenagers who have the appearance of being emo/scene, *shrugs*, I try to decide if I should try and find music for my age group....Nah!

But I will play along with Facebook's 10 things. (I try and write these lists on my blog because I don't want to annoy those who don't care about my life on Facebook) :)

10 Things you probably don't know about my marriage/relationship:
1) I waited a whole year to get married. (I don't advise this to anyone, unless you've only been dating for a couple month and you still need to get to know the other person better.)
2) My husband and I do not have a "normal" relationship. (we always give each other a hard time, we're hardly ever serious)
3) He is actually the neat freak in this house hold, I love to leave clothes on the floor.
4) We have always worked together. We worked at Buc Sports in college and now we both work at WCYB. (We don't always agree on things especially when he puts a key shot and a side panel in the same story while I'm directing, but we do get the same supper break so I'm happy for that)
5) Corey spoils me by giving me a back massage almost every night, and if he doesn't do that, he usually rubs my feet or plays with my hair. *bonus points*
6) Surprisingly, my husband is the more social one in the relationship. He never meets a stranger and can find common ground with just about anyone. I like to stand back and "people watch."
7) I love the fact that we both want to travel. Hopefully in 2014 we will head to Boston to watch the Red Sox play.
8) For the Unity part of our wedding we made a peanut butter and Jelly sandwich. (For no reason at all, other than 1)It was clever and 2)I'm not into corny unity traditions)The bread was Corey and I, the peanut butter was God who placed us together and the jelly was the sweet love he places in our hearts.
9) Right after we got married, one of my best friends, Cara and I were going to see 'Mayday Parade' (one of my favorite emo bands), Corey went with me to get their new CD and he even memorized some of the songs. (We still listen to it in the car and we both sing along.)
10) I couldn't have found anyone better to be by my side for the rest of my life. He makes me laugh even when I'm angry. He has always accepted me. He loves me unconditionally. He is patient. He spoils me. He dances with me at random moments. He's super funny. He hardly ever complains. He unloads the dishwasher. I'm super lucky and blessed to have a guy like him for a husband.

*Here's to many more days, months and years*


Love Always,
Callie Marie-McCarty Presley

(Andrew and Erin Photography)

All I want for Christmas...

"All I want for christmas..." my husband says to me...."Is an xbox 360."

And so the search began for the right xbox at the right price. And boy did I find one and I was so proud of myself.

Long story short, I tried to be super sneaky about my findings. I was going to go black friday shopping to get this xbox 360, but I found something better online. So, when I met my husband at work that night, he looked somewhat unhappy that I hadn't gone. However, Corey Presley decided to ruin my sneaky secret by "guessing" why I didn't go black friday shopping and it made me super angry.

Why?

Because I never can sneak anything past him, and I thought I had for our very first Christmas. Needless to say, I cried like a baby.

So, this friday he comes into the room and says, "Hey, I wanted to make up for guessing my christmas present, I'm going to let you have a christmas present early." I was super pumped, I sat on the couch and closed my eyes. He placed a Dvd in my hand and when I opened my eyes there sat one of my favorite girly movies, "How to lose a guy in 10 days" (Unfortunately for my husband, I already have this movie, my roommate in college gave it to me as a birthday gift) I wish you guys could have seen the look on his face. I had a good laugh about it. (it's the thought that counts, right?)

Can I just say that I am so excited for this first Christmas with my husband. Marriage life is the best. We've been tackling the UPS man, trying to hide our christmas gifts to each other(the ones we haven't given away), and trying to make our own christmas traditions.

So far we have 2:
Fixing bacon pancakes for breakfast on Christmas morning.
Decorating the tree the day before Thanksgiving.

We'll gather more, I'm sure of it.

Hopefully, none of my other gifts for him will be ruined and we'll have a very Merry Christmas.

Love always,
Callie Marie-McCarty Presley

Missing memories.

In my past I always pushed passed the things that were important in life and always rushed towards the things that weren't so important. (if that makes sense)

I recently found a box filled with old letters from high school and summer jobs. Letters from friends that were back at home waiting for the summer to end, letters from classmates who spilled their drama filled lives on paper, and then there were letters from my mamaw.

One summer I decided to work at a camp. It isn't a very fond memory for me.

The other day though, as I was going through that box of letters, I found almost one for every week I was there, from my mamaw. I didn't even realize that she wrote me at all. I was so focused on the negative that I didn't have time to sit and read my mamaw's sweet words of encouragement. She wrote to tell me about what she was getting into that week and how much she missed me. She wrote about how much she was praying for me and how she knew I was going to be a light in someone's life. And the sad part is I probably didn't even write her back. (I was always so selfish as a teenager) As I sat and read these letters, I cried.

I miss her so much.

I always tell myself she would have loved Corey. (Even though his name didn't start with a J: She would always say something like this, "All the important guys in my life, all of their names start with J." She would then began to name all of her sons, and then her son-in-laws and finally she would say, "but the most important man in my life, his name starts with a J too, his name is Jesus.")

I think She would have made a special exception, since his last name's Presley.

She loved people and angels.
She never met a stranger.
She always gave hugs.
She loved to dance.
My favorite toy at her house was a Mr. T doll.
She loved peppermint patties.
She made amazing biscuits and gravy.
She used to tell me "Man cannot live on Bread alone." because as a child, homemade bread was my favorite.
She was a huge talker.
I always claimed I took a hammer and nail to her head of curls and that's how I got my curly hair. (don't judge me)
One of the very last memories I have of just me and her: I drove her to get her hair fixed in my black mustang with spongebob seat covers. We rocked out to, Little Big Town's - Boondocks. (I'm not kidding)
She loved chicken gizzards from Kentucky Fried Chicken.
When she couldn't think of the name of something she would say, "Whatchamacallit"

I'm not really sure there's a point to this blog. She's just been on my mind a lot lately. I wish that time had slowed down just for a little bit, so that I could have savored those moments a little bit more.

I hope one day, when I see her again, she'll tell me how proud she is of me. That she got to watch me walk down the isle. That she danced with us in the barn. She'll give me a great big hug and we'll talk for hours. And that'll be okay with me.



I love you Mamaw.
 (I found this picture the other day, it makes me giggle.)





Love Always,
Callie Marie-McCarty Presley

Rant Rant Rant....it's good for the soul.

You know those days that you become completely frustrated with everything in life because of one tiny situations. That's me today.

I was shown a couple weeks ago, a new program I could use to record our "Calendars" (1:00 or 30 second video of whats happening in the tri-cities) in HD, instead of using tape. Last weekend I had problems with it, and this week I was shown HOW (I'm putting that in caps, because he didn't actually show me that it worked) and again this weekend I have problems with it. Honestly, I didn't sign up to work with computer codes and although I do other jobs outside of just being a PA, this is seriously getting under my skin.
(end of rant)

Oh just kidding, when I get off work tonight, my husband will be at work to produce the 4am show. And I'll be home with Wall-e who doesn't like to sleep without daddy. The last time this happen, wall-e woke up at 2am, and 4am, and 6am searching for Corey and I have trouble sleeping without him too. :(

I also have zits all over my face and one below my chin that hurts really bad.

(Now I'm just trying to find things to complain about)

On a positive note:

Yesterday, my husband and I had family pictures taken by our favorite photographers (Andrew and Erin Photography). My mom and dad, sister and bro-in-law, Kade and Luke were there too. We did a tacky Christmas session. I cannot wait to see the pictures. The best sweater goes to my dad (which I picked out in the Goodwill women's section) it was rather small and my mom hated it. He was a good sport though!! Wall-e was there too and even though husband forgot his santa outfit, I'm super happy because this will be our first family picture with him in them!! We love our dog, we just don't trust him outside, I'm pretty sure he'd run away because he's so adventurous (he's related to his mom)!

There's ice skating on at work and although if I happened upon this at home, I would skip right past it, its sort of entertaining. Honestly because whenever a skater does a flip on ice, I'm thinking what if he doesn't make it, how would that broadcast go. I also wonder what goes through their mind when they do a flip in front of a dozen people. Mine would be "holy crap, I hope I can finish this flip, so everyone will clap and make me feel like a champion (or something like that).

Anyway, like always on the weekend afternoon shift, I wish I was home hanging out with my two boys.
Catch ya on the flip side bro (I'm losing it)

Love always,
Callie Marie-McCarty Presley

(Nashville 2012)